Armenia and its sorrows

lo
ARMENIA AND ITS SORROWS
inartyrs and confessors is unique. No Christian
Church under heaven has endured such unremitting
persecution. For many months past, the whole
civiKsed world has echoed with the long-drawn wail
of agony which has gone up to God from tortured
cliildren, from dying men, and from outraged women.
The fell shadow of the False Prophet has hung like a
pall upon the land, and the darkness thickens even
while we write.
Occupying the greater part of the triangle which lies
])etween three seas,—the Caspian, the Euxine, and
the Mediterranean,—Armenia consists of an elevated
country, ranging from four to seven thousand feet
above the level of the sea. It is between four and
five hundred miles long, and is about the same in
breadth, stretching from the Caucasus on the north
to Kurdistan on the south, and from the Caspian Sea
on the east to Asia Minor on the west.
It was anciently divided into two parts : Armenia
Major on the east of the Euphrates, and Armenia
Minor to the west. The northern portion is now
governed by Russia, and a small corner on the
south-east is owned by Persia, but the largest part
still groans beneath the blundering despotism of the
Ottoman Empire.
The country consists mainly of pastoral plateaus,
tra\'ersed by picturesque chains of hills, which
culminate in the snow-capped peaks of Ararat,
towering heavenward almost seventeen thousand feet.
I'hcse mountains are composed of volcanic rock, and
the peaks still retain the form of craters, but ancient
history afibrds us no records of their activity, thougli
a German writer stated that in 1783 he saw smoke
and fire emitted from one of them—a statement
for wliich there is not, however, any corroboration.
The volcanic nature of the country is clearly